Backbending (themed class) Lesson Plan

Anahata chakra is located in your thoracic spine and translates to unstruck. This can mean that beneath our personal experiences of pain in our heart lies love and compassion.

In today’s class we are going to be backbending. Backbending requires a great deal of faith in yourself: that you will stay up, pressing your heart forward and if you enter the pose from standing that you will catch yourself. In anahata you follow your heart. In backbending you push your heart forward. Backbends require trust and surrender to open the heart fully and it is important to remove fear to allow space for love and joy. In our last class, we spoke about devotion – bhakti. It is through devotion that anahata can be awakened, today fully devote yourself to your practice, to opening your heart.

With the symbol of air, Anahata energises and thus pranayama helps balance this chakra. While you’re sitting here, I want you to listen for your heart beat and draw your attention to this chakra. Breathing deeply through both nostrils feel your heart beat and focus on this area.

Sit cross legged (3 mins)

laterally flex back to right then left

circle through body bringing chest forward and then back, clockwise then anticlockwise

holding knees with hands push backwards, and then forwards stretching through the spine.